Surfer hailed as hero after pulling young swimmer from rough water

A surfer is being called a hero after pulling a struggling swimmer from rought water on Monday. Officials in Brevard County confirm that by the time they got to the section of the beach near 5th Avenue and Indialantic a surfer had pulled someone from the water.  

That surfer was 21-year-old college student Robbie Hicks.  “Robbie was an angel,” said Patty Herchenbach, who said she and her friends spotted a 16-year-old in the water calling for help.   Hicks told FOX 35 he had decided that the waves churned up by Hurricane Joaquin were too much for him and he was headed home when he heard Herchenbach’s call for help. “I looked at him as a total stranger, I’ve never met this boy before and I said, ‘Son, can you help us? There’s a boy drowning in the water,’” Herchenbach recalled.

Hicks said he plunged back into the water with his surf board and battle the waves until he got to the boy.
“ It was hard to stay uplifted when he was saying ‘You saved me, you saved me” and I was  like, ‘We still have to make it in bud,’” Hicks said.

With the help of another surfer all made it to shore alright, where the kid’s family, first responders, and onlookers were waiting. “I’ve never had so many hugs from people I never knew before,” Hicks said. 

Hicks reluctantly admitted that by definition he is a hero, but he describes what happened like this: “There was no other choice.  Someone had to jump in that water and go get him and I had a surf board and the capability “
Hicks studies business entrepreneurship at Florida Tech University.  He is originally from Philidelphia.